Nowadays, the world is going through the third industrial revolution i.e. the smart infrastructure development built around the Internet of Things (IoT). Continuous technology advancement is a key factor for the revolution of the global stores and business sectors. Over the last decade, various technological advancements in the electronics and information technology have occurred rapidly resulting in the development of the global iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon market. iBeacon is a protocol which was originally developed by Apple Inc. Since then, other vendors also have made iBeacon-compatible hardware transmitters known as beacon. The technology enables tablets, smartphones and other devices to carry out activities such as to send or distribute messages and approximate location determination when there is nearness to an iBeacon. Both software and hardware components are involved in iBeacon technology. iBeacon is compatible with OS 7, iPod touch (5th generation) or later, iPad mini or later and iPad (3rd generation), iPhone 4s or later or later devices. Also, with Android 4.3+, Macintosh computers (OS X Mavericks 10.9 and Bluetooth) 4.0 and Windows Phone devices (Lumia Cyan update or above). Various applications offered by iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon include alert or push notification sending to iBeacon enabled device, whenever the iBeacon user is around a iBeacon-enabled retail shop (special offers), museum (sporting event/closest display), bus stop and other locations.Travel industries are undergoing through major deployments of beacon technology in airports and hotels. The iBeacons and Bluetooth beacons are intensively used in smartphones. Thus, the global iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon market is anticipated to witness significant CAGR during the forecast period.

Global iBeacon and Bluetooth Beacon Market: Drivers and Restraints

Advancement in IT solutions such as Internet of Things (IoT), rising awareness about iBeacon technology, growing number of appcessories, low power requirement and low cost, growing smartphone usage and increasing purchasing power of consumers resulting in increased smartphone usage are some of the key factors propelling the growth of the global iBeacon and Bluetooth Beacon market.

However, with the use of iBeacons and Bluetooth beacon, users are expected to witness challenges related to limited transmit-only protocol (no bidirectional communications between two devices), frequency variance (do not have the same frequency and do not transmit signals of same power), privacy and security issues, fluctuation in signal accuracy due to weather conditions, device power, temperature and polling intervals. This limits adoption of iBeacons and Bluetooth beacon among users and restricts theglobal iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon market growth.

Geographically, the global iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon market is segmented into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America is the prominent contributor in the global iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon Market, owing to highest penetration of organized retail and growing adoption of iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon services. Western Europe & Eastern Europe collectively contribute significant share to the global iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon market. This is due to growing multichannel marketing and the product distribution in the retail industry across these regions. Also,Bluetooth beacon manufacturers are developing software apps for beacon as well as they are manufacturing beacon devices. Enormous market growth and high internet penetration, improvement in technology infrastructure are few factors boosting iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon market growth in MEA. In APEJ and Japan, countries such as India, China, Japan and Philippines are anticipated towitness robust adoption ofiBeacon and Bluetooth beacon. This is due to growing disposable income coupled with rising consumer awareness for iBeacon and Bluetooth beacon.